煤

méi
noun HSK 6 #13,682

Meanings

  1. 1 coal

Characters

Examples

HSK 5
Zhōngguó shì shìjiè shàng zuì dà de méi shēngchǎn guó.
China is the world's largest coal producer.
HSK 7-9
Yǐqián dōngtiān yòng méi qǔnuǎn.
In the past, coal was used for heating in winter.
HSK 7-9
Méikuàng gōngrén de gōngzuò hěn xīnkǔ.
Coal miners' work is very hard.

Tips

usage
煤矿 (coal mine), 煤气 (coal gas), 煤炭 (coal as commodity) - these are the most common compounds with 煤.
memory
煤 has 火 (fire) on the left and 某 (certain/some) on the right - the 'certain thing' associated with fire.

Components

radical
火 huǒ
fire
The fire radical on the left tags 煤 as something burned - coal exists as a fuel, defined by combustion. It indexes 煤 with the fire family: 烧 burn, 煮 boil, 烟 smoke, 烤 roast, 炭 charcoal. Every fuel and heat-application char carries 火 or its variant 灬.
phonetic
某 mǒu
a certain (here phonetic)
某 supplies the sound mǒu → méi, just an initial-and-tone shift. The picture of 甘 (sweet) over 木 (tree) - a sweet plum - has no semantic role here. Same phonetic series links 煤 to 媒 matchmaker, 谋 plan, 莓 berry, all sharing only their reading.

Stroke Order

煤 méi